Traineeships will help young people who meet the criteria of the programme regardless of their background and we expect employers and providers to support this aim. Once the programme has begun, we will review learner information on disability, gender, ethnicity and other relevant characteristics to monitor its performance.

The noble Baroness is right to raise the important issue of vulnerable groups and people who represent themselves. However, a total of 11,359 applications were lodged in 2011, of which only 144 were successful. I hear what the noble Baroness says, and I am sure she will appreciate that for every application made in written form it is down to the judge to make an adjudication on whether it has merit to go forward. Even if the case is decided in the negative, the individual still has a right to take the matter forward to the Court of Appeal.

My Lords, I begin by congratulating the noble Baroness on her impeccable timing because today the Government published their response to the consultation on reforming judicial review. The response sets out changes to the judicial review procedure which the Government intend to take forward. As set out in the response, we believe that these changes to the fee structure, oral renewals and time limits will help to reduce the burden of judicial review while, most importantly, maintaining access to justice, the rule of law, and the right to a fair hearing.

We have consulted on whether to repeal Section 444(6) of the Education Act 1996, which provides a defence for travelling families in certain circumstances if their children are absent from school. This consultation has now closed and we are reviewing all the responses we have received, including those about distance learning.

In 2012, the Department for Communities and Local Government published a ministerial working group progress report on Gypsies and Travellers on tackling the inequalities they face around education, health, criminal justice, planning and access to benefits and financial services. Six of these were education commitments.

Three of the education commitments have been met. The virtual head teachers’ pilots and the exclusions trials are both in progress and are due to report in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The consultation on whether to repeal Section 444(6) of the Education Act 1996 ended on 22 February and the results are currently being analysed.

Many Chagossians are members of the Commonwealth by holding UK, Mauritian or Seychellois nationality. The Commonwealth Charter is a clear statement of the values that all Commonwealth member states should adhere to.

Successive Governments have expressed regret for the way the resettlement of the Chagossians was carried out in the 1960s and 1970s. This would not have met the values aspired to in the Commonwealth Charter. Because it was wrong, substantial final compensation has been paid.

My Lords, I would not want to criticise what other countries are doing, but I agree with the noble Baroness about the protection that these zones can give to the species and habitats that we are seeking to protect.

We have no plans to alter the “no-take” status of the British Indian Ocean Territory, marine protected area. This is, of course, subject to the outcome of current ongoing domestic litigation and international arbitral proceedings.

The guidance will cover all pupils and all schools, so all minority groups should be within it.

Information showing pupil absence

by ethnic group and attainment information for Gypsy-Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage pupils is shown in the tables below.

Pupil absence data for the academic year 2011-12 will be published on 19 March at: http://www.education. gov.uk-researchandstatistics.

Information on the retention of Gypsy-Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage pupils of compulsory school age is not currently available. Such information is, however, being produced in response to a recent request from the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and other Travellers and will be placed in the House Libraries when complete.

Source: School Census

(1) Includes middle schools as deemed.

(2) Includes maintained secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies (including all-through academies).

(3) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools.

(4) Number of enrolments in schools from start of the school year up until 28 May 2010. Includes pupils on the school roll for at least one session who are aged between five and 15, excluding boarders. Some pupils may be counted more than once (if they moved schools during the school year or are registered in more than one school).

(5) The number of sessions missed due to authorised/unauthorised/overall absence expressed as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions.

(6) Pupils who have been classified according to their ethnic group, excluding White British.

(7) Includes pupil enrolments for whom information on ethnic group was unclassified or missing.

Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

Source: School Census⁽¹⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed.⁽²⁾ Includes primary academies.⁽³⁾ Includes city technology colleges and secondary academies.⁽⁴⁾ Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools, independent special schools and independent schools approved for SEN pupils.⁽⁵⁾ Number of enrolments in schools from start of the school year up until 27 May 2011. Includes pupils on the school roll for at least one session who are aged between five and 15, excluding boarders. Some pupils may be counted more than once (if they moved schools during the school year or are registered in more than one school).⁽⁶⁾ The number of sessions missed due to authorised/unauthorised/overall absence expressed as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions.⁽⁷⁾ Pupils who have been classified according to their ethnic group, excluding White British.⁽⁸⁾ Includes pupil enrolments for whom information on ethnic group was unclassified or missing.

Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

Source: National Pupil Database (2009-10 to 2010-11) and Key Stage 4 attainment data (2011-12)¹ Number of pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 in each academic year.² Figures for 2009-10 and 2010-11 are based on final data; 2011-12 figures are based on revised data.³ From 2009-10 iGCSEs, accredited at time of publication, have been counted as GCSE equivalents and also as English and mathematics GCSEs.⁴ Includes attempts and achievements by these pupils in previous academic years.⁵ GCSEs only (including iGCSEs, short courses, double awards and vocational GCSEs) and AS levels.

. = Not applicable.

Source: National Pupil Database¹. Figures for 2008 to 2011 are based on final data; 2012 figures are based on revised data.². Percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 or above.³. Pupils are expected to progress by at least 2 levels between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

. = Not applicable.

Source: National Pupil Database¹ Figures for 2010 - 2011 are based on final data; 2012 figures are based on provisional data.²

Includes pupils achieving levels 1, 2 (including levels 2C, 2B and 2A), 3, 4, those who were working towards level 1, who were disapplied from the National Curriculum, who were significantly absent so that no TA could be made on that pupil or who were unable to access the assessment (relevant to science only). Pupils with missing, or invalid results are not included in the calculations.

. = Not applicable.

Source: National Pupil Database¹ Figures for all years are based on final data.² Only includes pupils with a valid result for every achievement scale.³ All English providers of state-funded early years education (including Academies and Free Schools), private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sectors are within the scope of the EYFSP data collection. Data for any children in the PVI sector no longer in receipt of funding who were included in the return submitted by the LA to DfE will not be included in the figures.⁴ A pupil who achieves 6 or more points in each of the 7 scales in the Personal, Social and Emotional development (PSE) and Communication, Language and Literacy areas of learning (CLL).⁵ A pupil achieving 6 or more points across the 7 Scales of PSE and CLL and who also achieves 78 or more points across all 13 scales is classed as having “a good level of development”.⁶ Percentage of pupils in this group who are classified as being in the lowest achieving 20%.

. = Not applicable.

The council conclusions on Roma integration, adopted by the member states in May 2011, made clear that Roma integration is primarily a matter for the member states. However, they also invited the Commission “to appropriately assess member states' success in accordance with their respective approaches...”. The Commission published an initial assessment of member states' policies on 21 May 2012. This report can be found on the European Commission website at: http ://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/romalindex_en.htm.

The Government work closely with the European Commission and other European Union member states on follow-up to the council conclusions. For example, in October 2012, the Department for Communities

and Local Government represented the UK at the first meeting of National Roma Contact Points, which was chaired by the European Commission, and brought together officials from all the EU member states.

The Government have not made any representation to the Government of Slovakia on either of these cases. The off-duty policeman involved in the Hurbanovo shooting is currently on trial for first-degree murder; suspects have also been arrested in connection to the death of Mr Horvath. As both cases are ongoing it would be inappropriate for the Government to comment.

I cannot say specifically for a new home, but if new homes were being provided for Travellers, the new homes bonus would be paid. To the specific question about numbers, I will have to write to the noble Baroness.

We regard the solution to this issue as a local one. That is why we will be setting up the local offer involving children and young people with SEN and their parents and we will publish details of where parents can find all this available in one place. As young people will have an education, health and social care plan which will be reviewed every year, this will monitor the issues to which the noble Baroness refers.

Design is of key importance but the English baccalaureate is not compulsory. It is quite possible for schools to offer other provision and design will feature strongly in the alternative provision that schools can offer.

We are currently not in a position to be able to publish information on the number and proportion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller prisoners relative to the population.

As mentioned previously in a Written Answer on 16 July (WA 14), following the addition of the new census 2011 ethnicity categories into the prison IT system, prisoners received into custody can now declare themselves as Gypsy or Irish Traveller. However, it is unlikely that existing prisoners (those already in custody prior to the new category being introduced) will have been given the opportunity to revise their previously stated ethnicity.

Current data on the number of Gypsy or Irish Traveller prisoners are therefore likely to be an undercount of the true number of prisoners who would identify themselves as Gypsy or Irish Traveller. We are committed to moving all prisoners from the 2001 census codes to the 2011 codes; however, this will take some time. We will shortly (by April 2013 under current plans) be

issuing guidance to all prisons on how to conduct a one-off exercise to move existing prisoners on to the new codes.

We will monitor the use of the new code and publish the figures once the coverage and data quality are deemed sufficient to provide meaningful and accurate statistics. We currently have no estimate of when the data will be deemed fit for publication.

Under the terms of the Lisbon treaty, the Government are required to decide by 31 May 2014 whether we opt out of, or remain bound by, all those EU police and criminal justice measures adopted prior to the entry into force of the treaty, which includes this

measure. As my right honourable friend the Home Secretary announced in the other place on 15 October 2012 (Official Report, col. 35), which I informed this House about through a Statement on the same day, this wider decision is still being considered and any implementation of this measure will await the outcome of that process.

Our housing strategy, Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England, was published in November 2011. It emphasises that getting the quality, sustainability and design of housing right is crucial if communities are going to support new homes.

In line with this, the National Planning Policy Framework published in March 2012 makes clear that good design is a key aspect of sustainable development, is indivisible from good planning and should contribute positively to making places better for people. Specifically it sets out that: permission should be refused for development of poor design; great weight should be given to outstanding or innovative designs; proposals that have evolved to take account of the views of the community should be looked on more favourably; and local planning authorities should have local design review arrangements in place.

In addition, we are currently funding the Design Council CABE to provide design review services. This enables developers and local authorities to get potential schemes reviewed by an independent panel of experts, who provide advice on how the scheme design could be improved.

We have also supported the development of the Building for Life design checklist. This is promoted by the Home Builders Federation and the Design Council as a reference tool that can be used at the pre-application stage to help frame local discussions about the design of a new housing scheme.

No decisions have been made about standards for space and storage in the review of local housing standards. Ministers will receive recommendations for their consideration in due course.

Information on the design and sustainability standards used by the Homes and Communities Agency can be found online at: www. homesandcommunities.co.uk/ourwork/design-and-sustainability-standards.

Information on how the quality of housing schemes is measured is at: www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/hqi.